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Scum Dog Billionaire: Slumdog Millionaire
Plucked from obscurity from the hustle, bustle, filth and poverty of Mumbai’s biggest slum, Azharuddin Ismail and Rubina Ali were cast as the young slum dwellers in Danny Boyle’s latest flick for authenticity of the lives of slum dwelling children. But it is right that they were seemingly paid a pittance for their roles?
The film, an adaptaion of Vikas Swarps novel Q & A, follows the life of Indian Jamal Malik (Ram Mohammed Thomas in the novel), a young slum dweller who is desperate to leave a life of poverty behind. He is cast on a game show and subsequently answers all the questions correctly winning a 20 million rupees but is later arrested for the feat.
Ismail was cast in the film to play a young Salim (Jamal’s brother) and Ali, Thomas’s young friend and eventually love of his life. Their scenes were short and their roles not leading, but they did the job of any other child actor and have seemingly been cut short on the monetary front.
Ismail has been reported to have been paid less than $2500 and Ali an unbelievable $700 dollars. To make up for the pittance they were paid for their roles, they were flown to Hollywood for the Oscars and shouted a trip to Disneyland. But doesn’t this just some up the greed and selfishness of the world? The two youngsters were then sent back to there slum in Mumbai where Ismail sleeps under a tarpaulin and Ali in a tiny one room shack with her six family members.
The producers of the film offset these ‘rumours’ by saying that the children had been paid for there schooling until they were 18 years of age at one of India’s top schools and that a trust fund had been set up for the them for their graduation when they were 18 years of age. Is this sufficient? Slum dwellers to Academy Award Winners and back in no time at all.
You decide.
22 Comments
Very interesting, there’s something wrong somewhere, how they can send them back to the slums saddens me.
This is very impressive but sadly, not surprising coming from Hollywood.
this is very upsetting to think that children are still being used in this world today especially with the bucks that a movie rakes in. Great write RJ
I actually stopped watching the Oscars as soon as I saw those children paraded about. It made me sick to think that those children were actually used. American actors, including American children actors get paid millions, yet you take a child from a foreign country, pay them next to nothing and throw them away like yesterday’s garbage. And what were they exactly saying by taking them to Disneyland? Hey kid you win me an Oscar, now let’s go to Disneyland! Yet just another reason why I stopped paying $10 for the movies…
Interesting one
Are you kidding me? I hae not seen the movie. However, it does not seem right that the film makers can make such a profit and gain so much fame, but leave the people that helped them obtain it to the slums. It may be the way that people do business, but it sure doesnt seem moral.
Interesting points. Now if the film had bombed and the producers had lost their homes financing it, how would it affect this article? I’m not justify actions, but am saying look at both sides…
Thanks,
Clay
i agree with Clay,nice one RJ
Smelling to exploitation.
This film was made on a relatively low budget and came very close to being a straight to dvd release without the wide international attention it eventually got. No one foresaw the financial/critical success this film would reach.
.
I am sure these kids are being treated/compensated much more fairly than they would by most India based studios.
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I would say that in the wake of the films success the children are being treated justly. Like Clay said, if the film tanked, there would be no money to divvy up and no one would be complaining.
I think that the boys actually had not small – but large roles. They took up most of the first half of the film. Not only were they good, they were excellent. I watched their performances in amazement. I was a Stage actress for eleven and a half years, and from my experience, these boys have got natural talent.
I think that if it’s true that their schooling have been paid, that that makes up for their small fee. After all, a secure future that is more important than a large one-off fee. This fee may not have been enough to pay for a large house and all that schooling.
I’ve worked with Dev (in Skins) the ’star’ of the show. He’s a really fine young man. I’m sure that he wouldn’t have stood and done nothing, if he thought that the kids who were in the same movie as him were being treated unfairly while he was being pampered. Sure, he may have never even seen them while filming was taking place. But I think that he’s aware enough about those things.
very interesting articles… though im not familiar with that, im goin to check it out!
what an eye-opener.. thanks for the share..
Hi everyone,
Thanks for your input.
Clay & David. I understand what you are saying about the fact that if it was not a box office success then the children may have got less than what they did get but the point is it WAS a success and I think that if they were Hollywood child actors for instance, they would have recieved more than petty cash and a trip to Disneyland.
Cheers,
RJ
There’s something wrong here. Since the film was a box office success, they should reward these children financially. The children are a part of the success of the film.
Well done, RJ! An interesting article. I hope the children get the help they need and deserve.
Good post but I don’t think you are really reading David’s point, at the time the film was going to be nothing and the children were duly paid and set up with education with a trust fund in place for them to receive any profits they were owed when they completed their education(more than any other child from the slums would dream of). And sent home. But when the ball started rolling and the money began to role, the kids were bought homes for them and the families and taken to the US for the media stuff.
After reading this article I am less interested in watching the movie. Well, I was never that interested anyway. Unfortunately Hollywood is becoming more like that and I don’t quite understand why these kids were given such a low pay for doing such a good role in the movie.
ALL HUMAN BEINGS LOVE FISHING be THEY hollywood guys OR SLUM DOGS,
EACH HAS A PRICE,
AND SLUM DOGS HAVE TO GET BACK TO THOSE ENVIRONS.
SO AS THE TOP GUYS HAVE MADE MONEY
THE DICTUM OF DESTINY…….
”RISE AND FALL”
BECOMES ALL THE MORE EMPHATIC/ predominant.
we all are a greedy source of the species we call human beings who love only one sport which obviously is
”FISHING ”
JUST ABOUT ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE.
All countries of the world boast of slums ,what of India alone. This movie, the most talked of Oscar winner, places India on the world map.
Slum dog, India….
The world witnesses slums,
So do we all be it in Canada and USA,
Of course everywhere else too,
We all know that slums exist,
Across all over the world,
What of Downtown and Manhattan,
And the Indian subcontinent
None the less the Oscars drawn,
Ah the lovely music played,
And the gambling instinct displayed,
Are traits alike of all nations,
Be it in the East or the West.
I think for all of us,
Every where, all
‘’Slum Dogs’’
Deserve the very best.
That is why we stopped going to the hollywood movies. They (directors, producers etc..) are all greedy for $$$$. They exploit the liberals with some poverty stricken Indians, then pray upon the naivete of the average American idiot who shells out 10 bucks to subsidize these hollywood creeps. Those poor kids in Bombay need help, where are all those hollywood types now—are they too busy sucking down 5 dollar coffee drinks in Brentwood CA????
Clay Hurtubise ,I don’t concur with latter ifs..instead substantiate the reality against a mere thought.Insurance can compensate the damages you support’.The 21st c is never different for those who crusade for humanity just turnout to be dogs themselves.Clay remenber that francisee/francisers for beggers business is so rampard in Mumbai and other parts of India.
These producers and directors should judge themselves and do the needfull..
“Always give your servant and inferiors what they deserve”
Regards,